Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Meal planning in January can be struggle between our New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier and our desire for comfort foods to warm our souls in the dark of winter. Consider the struggle over. This rich, creamy roasted cauliflower soup will satisfy your cravings for warmth and comfort without causing any guilt because it’s nutritious, meatless, dairy-free and can even be made vegan by using vegetable broth.

What is the secret to making a soup like this healthy yet incredibly satisfying? Roast, don’t boil, the vegetables to coax out their natural flavor and sweetness. Extra work, to be sure, but worth it. Roasting deepens cauliflower’s nutty flavor and caramelizes its natural sugars. If you have only ever had steamed or blanched cauliflower, you will be amazed by the intense flavor of this same vegetable after 20 minutes in a blazing hot oven.

The second secret is potatoes. And don’t give me any nonsense about potatoes being unhealthy. Potatoes are a nutritious vegetable with lots of vitamin C. We make them unhealthy by slathering them with butter and sour cream half the time. In this soup, however, the potatoes add richness and body without adding a lot of extra fat and calories. Essentially, they replace the cream. A pretty good trade, in my view.

The third secret is a little Moroccan spice mixture called ras el hanout. Akin to garam masala in Indian cuisine, ras el hanout is a fragrant, delicate spice blend that is used to finish a dish. Its components vary from region to region. Some of the spices you might find in ras el hanout include cumin, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mace, cardamom, peppercorns, chili peppers, fenugreek, ginger, paprika, turmeric, rose petals, and more.

My small tin is now a few years old, but because the spices are whole, they have retained their flavor. I use a small mortar and pestle to grind my ras el hanout right before I need it and no earlier. Just a small amount sprinkled on at the end of cooking transforms a dish. Every time I use ras el hanout in something, my husband comments on how flavorful the dish is.

Ras el hanout does not want to compete with a lot of other flavors for your attention, so I refrain from adding any other seasonings, besides salt and pepper to this soup. If you don’t have ras el hanout and I have not managed to convince you to go out and buy some — you should really buy some! — consider seasoning your soup with cumin, coriander, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and other warm spices when sautéing the onion and garlic.